Scams, Schemes, Systems, Fraud and
Pyramids! Anyone who has been in the network marketing industry for
longer than a day has most likely run into an accusation of having been
suckered into a scam. Defense against such claims of fraud and
gullibility is useless, and can make the new recruit seem like he has
joined a cult.

Network marketing scams and underhanded schemes are something I have
not thought about much lately. When I started paying my bills with my
commission checks, people suddenly ...

MLMs
grow by exploiting people's relationships. If you are going to be in an
MLM, you swallow hard and accept this as part of "building your
business." This is "networking." But to those not "in" the MLM, it
seems as if friendship is merely a pretext for phoniness, friendliness
is suspected as prospecting, and so on. There is no middle ground here,
try as you might.

While
issues of morality and ethics can be tricky to discuss, materialism and
greed are universally condemned by every major religion, and even by
most of the irreligious. This does not mean people are not
materialistic or greedy; in fact, the common ethical call to not be so
is strong evidence that we are.

For most people, this means if
we are going to be materialistic or greedy, we would...

For
most MLMs, the product is really a mere diversion from the real
profit-making dynamic. To anyone familiar with MLMs, the previous
discussion (which focused so much on the fact that MLMs are "doomed by
design" to reach market saturation and thus put the people who are
legitimately trying to sell the product into a difficult situation) may
seem to miss the point. The product or service may well be good, and it
might oversatura...

"Let
me tell you about an incredible ground-level business opportunity," and
you are invited to a house or to lunch for "a discussion." Funny
enough, you feel sick in your gut that there is some hidden agenda or
deception. "Probably a multi-level marketing (MLM) organization," you
think. Suppose it is? Should you trust your instincts? Is there
anything wron...